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The Week #169
by James- ๐ Autumn suddenly arrived this week. One day the low was 25 and the high was 33. The next day the low was 19 and the high was 27. This summer was very long and we didn't have but one typhoon to bring some relief from the heat. Very very glad it's over.
- ๐โโ๏ธ We visited the Enoshima area for the first time since...March. Leo and I splashed a bit in the still warm water. Afterwards we all went to the aquarium to check out the sharks. Despite us visiting on a regular basis over the years, I don't think we've ever looked slowly at the entire aquarium...it's always a bit of a rush.
- ๐ As we walked to ride the monorail home we saw a homeless person. Leo didn't see him. But as we got close, he said "kusai" (stinking/smelly) aloud. After we crossed the street, Leo got small talking to about learning to think things without saying them and that not everyone has a home to go home to each night and not everyone can take a bath every day. He seemed like he understood.
- ๐ฎ Our local shrine took out the mikoshi for the first time in since 2019. The last time they did it was actually the day we moved in to our house. Along the road leading to the shrine is a small festival with games and food.
Vendors selling food on the road leading to the shrine
We bought some yaki-soba (stir fried noodles), tako-yaki (octopus balls), and some cotton candy. Leo's wanted to try cotton candy for a while so he was very excited to try it. A surprise to no one, he's a fan.Father and son making tako-yaki - ๐ถ I made a great batch of Mexican style pinto beans and found a new favorite YouTuber, ArnieTex. His channel focuses a lot on cooking the food I used to eat in Texas. Why the music note emoji, you ask? Iย taught Leo a song that every kid should know about beans*. You know the one, it goes something like:
Beans, beans the magical fruit.
The more you eat, the more you toot.
The more you toot, the better you feel.
That's why we eat beans at every meal.
And I'm quite happy / proud to say that he's memorized it and sings it too me a couple of times a day. His small grammatical mistakes are also cute. I kinda like his version "The more you toot, the better the feel".
* I also learned there's a version where first two lines are "Beans, beans, they're good for your heart. The more you eat, the more you fart" from a co-worker. They'd never heard the magical fruit version and I'd never heard the heart version.
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Checkin to Katase Higashihama Beach (็็ฌๆฑๆตๆตทๆฐดๆตดๅ ด)
Beach houses are gone for the year means we can visit the beach again. -
Checkin to Starbucks
First (and probably last) PSL of the season. -
by JamesMorning Run
Maybe itโs my imagination, but I swear I felt a slightly cool breeze this morning. 4 and a bit run done, but will have to merge runs somehow as I accidentally ended the run when taking this photo of Fuji. ๐คท -
The Week #168
by James- ๐ด We had a 3 day weekend this week, with Monday being respect for the elderly day. We took full advantage of it doing small outings each day.
- ๐ฆ Saturday we took the car down to terrace mall in Tsujido. Usually when we go there by car we take back streets. It probably takes a bit longer than the more direct Route-1, but we're not in a rush and I'd rather drive roads I'm used to.
This time I decided to try Route-1 as "it's faster"...and...never again. There was an accident on along the way which backed up traffic quite a bit. It took us about 90 minutes to get there...which is ridiculous as it's only 12km. I could've run it faster...Even the traffic-free timing of 30 minutes feels like a bit much...alas, driving in Japan isn't always (usually?) time efficient. - ๐ The main reason we went to the mall was so that Leo could go to to BรธrneLund and burn some energy. I could have sworn this company was from Denmark that general area...but in researching it now, turns out they're Japanese. TIL. Anywho, bouncing together is always a blast.
- โ๏ธ On Sunday we mostly stayed around the house, except when we took Sophie to get a hair cut. After Sophie gets a haircut, the groomer always takes a seasonal photo. This time it's halloween and Sophie is Kiki, from Kiki's delivery service!
Sophie dressed up as Kiki after a haircut - ๐ณ We went to Yamato Yutori no Mori...which despite it's name is not a forest (mori == forest). It's a large park next to a Japanese self-defense force base with a couple of large playscapes and those white bouncy hills like they have in Chigasaki.
We brought our pop-up tent, some sandwiches for lunch, and a cooler full of ice and sports drink. Some people in the family thought the 3 bottles in the fridge would be enough, but with the humidity, my Spidey-sense was going off about that not being enough...so I bought a couple liter and a couple kg of ice...which turned into ice water to wet towels that we could put around our necks (Texas coolers is what we called them growing up...I'm sure everyone has a different name for them).
As the park is next to an airbase, we got to see a bunch of different airplanes take off, including an Osprey, which was really cool. I've never seen one of them outside of videos online or on the news. And turns out there's only 2 in Japan!Half of the Japanese Osprey fleet r taking off Some military aircraft going somewhere
In the end, we stayed from 9:30am until 1pm and it was 33 degrees the entire time... - ๐ฅต Speaking of it being 33 degrees - it's been over 30 degrees for the past 3 months.ย I'm completely over it. It looks like we might start getting some relief in one more week where the high will be 27...which is pretty damn close to our regular low.
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Checkin to Yamato Yutori no Mori (ๅคงๅใใจใใฎๆฃฎ)
Set up camp for the morning -
Checkin to BorneLund Asobi no Sekai (ใใผใใซใณใ ใใใณใฎใใใ)
Bouncin with boyo -
Checkin to DEAN & DELUCA
Shared some lasagna with Leo.
